[Marie Paganel]

Некоторое время прошло с того, как я прочитала книжку (книжки про книжки в последние месяцы моё всё), и ярче всего почему-то помню из неё эту историю-анекдот. Извините, в переводе не нашла.

“Tell me a good cop story,” A.J. says.
<...>
Lambiase nods. “Okay. Let me think. Maybe fifteen years ago, there was this kid, goes to Alicetown. He hasn’t been to school for a month. Every day, he tells his parents he’ll go and every day, he doesn’t show up. Even if they leave him there, he sneaks out and goes somewhere else.”
“Where’s he going?”
“Right. The parents think he must be in some serious trouble. He’s a tough kid, hangs with a tough crowd. They all get bad grades and wear low pants. His parents run a food stand at the beach, so there isn’t much money. Anyhow, the parents are at their wit’s end, so I decide to follow the kid the whole day. The kid goes to school, and then between period one and two, he just leaves. I’m trailing behind him, and finally we get to a building I’ve never been into before. I’m on Main and Parker. You know where I am?”
“That’s the library.”
“Bingo. You know I never read much back then. So I follow him up the stairs and into a library carrel in the back and I’m thinking, he’s probably going to do drugs or something there. Perfect place, right? Isolated. But you know what he’s got?”
“Books, I’d imagine. That’s the obvious thing, right?”
“He’s got one thick book. He’s in the middle of Infinite Jest. You ever heard of it?”
“Now you’re making this up.”
“The boy is reading Infinite Jest. He says he can’t do it at home because he has five siblings to babysit and he can’t do it at school because his buddies will make fun of him. So he skips school to go read in peace. The book takes a lot of concentration. ‘Listen, hombre,’ he says, ‘there’s nothing for me at school. Everything’s in this book.’ ”
“I take it, he’s Latino, by your use of the word hombre. A lot of Hispanic people on Alice Island?”
“A few.”
“So what do you do?”
“I haul his ass back to school. The principal asks me how the kid should be punished. I ask the kid how long he thinks it’ll take him to finish the book. He says, ’About two weeks.’ And so I recommend they give him a two-week suspension for delinquency.”
“You’re definitely making this up,” A.J. says. “Admit it. The troubled youth was not skipping school to read Infinite Jest.”
“He was, A.J. I swear to God.” But then Lambiase bursts out laughing. “You seemed depressed. I wanted to tell you a story with a little uplift.”
“Thanks. Thanks very much.”

GABRIELLE ZEVIN «The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry»

@темы: цитаты, Мари читает не Верна

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